


How Diego Got His Scars

by icyghost154



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Torture, No Incest, Trauma, mentions of knives, no self harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 12:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18073661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icyghost154/pseuds/icyghost154
Summary: You don’t owe anything to that Academy anymore. You gave - you gave more than enough.’Just one interpretation of how Diego Hargreeves got the scar that runs from his temple across the side of his head. An original 'Patch-esque' character discovers the vulnerability behind the black leather boy she works with.Possibly a series with hopefully happier times and love for our soft boy ahead.





	How Diego Got His Scars

You followed after Diego down the hotel corridor, prepared to head back to your rooms to examine the evidence you had recovered for the day. It had been a long one, asking the same questions to different eye-witnesses to the diner shooting that had claimed six lives. The case had been passed down to you, as you covered the dirtier crime work well, but you needed Diego on your side for the inside intel he always had. You only seemed to cross parts when grim police work called, but you were thankful for the company. As stubborn as he was to do it ‘his’ way, his steady demeanor and willing trust he put in you always kept you level-headed and calm. Plus you were human, and he was easy on the eyes. 

Fully clad in black leather, with strappy harnesses crossing his back and chest, Diego was more suitably dressed for a shady assassination rather than a simple intel meeting. Maybe this was all he owned in his closet. But hey, you had no complaints and for once, didn’t find following your partner instead of leading the way. As you studied his profile, you felt your eyes drawn to a thick indented scar on the side of his head. Always at the back of your inquisitive detective mind, you wondered if this was linked to his ‘kid-superhero’ days you never discussed. 

‘I never asked’. You murmured, tentatively. It was less of a statement, more of a self-realisation of your own, that shot past your lips and into the empty air between yourself and Diego. His black boots squeaked as he turned to glare at you.  
‘Asked me what?’  
‘The scar. On the side of your head. You don’t have to tell me, I was just…thinking aloud’.

There was a stagnant pause. You shifted your eyes from Diego’s glare and pushed on towards your hotel door. You had interconnecting rooms, but you were unsure if you had overstepped any kind of camaraderie you had had with your partner. Clicking open the door, you paused and turned to apologise for asking a clearly sensitive question. To your surprise, Diego was inches from you, with a heavy black boot already in the doorway. 

Diego looked down to his feet before meeting your eyes.  
‘I shouldn’t be hesitant. Reginald sent me on so many missions where we all got scarred, broken bones and…worse.’ He took a sharp breath before continuing. ‘All of us, Luther, Allison even Klaus - we put our necks on the line everytime, and for what? We didn’t exactly end up the best of team mates. We just ended up more m-messed up’.  
Your head flinched at Diego’s sudden stutter. ‘You don’t have to…get into this now. I brought us off course, lets just…focus on the mission’ you reassured him. On all the cases you had worked together, grisly and grim, you hadn’t heard Diego trip over his words before. You regretted even bringing up the topic, but as Diego’s eyes, suddenly empty and unfocused, only bore into the wall space next to your head, you gently took his gloved hand and led him to the hotel armchair, the door closing firmly behind you. This discussion was happening now. 

You crouched beside his knee, placing a hand comfortingly on his own. Maybe this wasn’t professional, maybe this wasn’t…right, but you would do anything to wipe the traumatised look of his face. His face remained hardened, not a hint of emotion as usual - but his eyes...they just refused to meet yours. 

‘I had just got a new set. Black at the hilt, sharpest on the market. I never knew if I always liked knives or I was simply…conditioned to like them, but Dad made sure I knew how to hold one before I even knew how to walk. I remember getting this new set, and it was the closest thing to a birthday present as I would ever get. I was thirteen and because Dad refused to see us outside of mission and dinner hours, Klaus brought them up to my room.’ 

A small rare smile crept upon his face as he remembered. 

‘Just about as spoilt as I got. Klaus of course had managed to drop all but one of them on the way up the stairs, but I didn’t care. They were beautiful. I wanted to go out on mission as soon as possible and thought maybe… this would push me up. You know, to numb-‘

‘Number One’ you said understandingly.  
You only needed to watch Luther and Diego interact for a minute to get a sense of the competitive tension that lay between them. Luther’s sudden ‘growth spurt’ hadn’t helped ease that at all, either. You knew the numbers didn’t mean anything, just that rich bastard’s twisted way of turning the children against with each other, no doubt, but it had clearly affected Diego’s drive to always be better. You wished he would see his own strengths without the constant comparison to his brother. 

‘Yeah.’ Diego admitted quietly. ‘So the next time we went out, I brought them. Was sure this was how I would… win ‘em over. It was a hostage situation, one too risky for the police to interact with straight away. 3 scumbags inside had taken a nursing school unit hostage. For drugs, for fun, who knows. Police were hesitant to step in, they were a notorious lot, after all. We just did what Dad told us to. It was all we ever could do’

You remembered that incident in the newspapers. ‘ACADEMY TAKE DOWN BANDIT OF REPEAT THIEVES’. Always in awe and already planning up your dream detective career, you studied the case up and down when you were in your teen years; but didn’t see a scrap of evidence saying any of the kids got hurt. Surely this wasn’t when Ben-

‘Ben was there, if that’s what you were wondering’ Diego said bitterly, as if reading your mind. ‘Dad hadn’t signed away his life just yet. Maybe that’s why the missions were more thrilling back then. Ben was never one to flaunt his powers but he was there. Just having him as a part of our team,it...it made a big difference.’

You didn’t probe any further. Diego’s scars were one thing, you wouldn’t dare pry into the loss of his brother. Maybe this was a question for Klaus, another day. 

‘Allison started as the bait, of course. Small, innocent girl that may have lost her way inside the nursing school didn’t pose an immediate threat to the targets, she would often lead one of the bandits away from the conflict. Tell him a rumour, make him lock himself inside a closet, yadda yadda.’ Luther, unless he was charging straight at the enemy, full-speed would engage in combat while Klaus would…uh… ‘ Diego scrunched up his face. ‘Klaus would be Klaus. Throw things sometimes.’

‘Maybe he was the distraction more than Allison was.’ you said with a light tone, hoping the smile would return to Diego’s face. 

‘Yeah, yeah, maybe.’ Diego still looked like his mind was far away, trapped in that nursing unit all those years ago. You knew you had to keep pushing on.

‘What did you do that day?’ you asked.

‘I-I was so determined to beat Luther. To prove to Dad, Klaus, Ben - everyone. I was used to hiding around the corners, bending the knives and making them do most of the work for me’

‘You were the one who threw them, Diego.’ You reassured him, hating the fact that self-doubt seemed to permeate all his old memories of the Academy. ‘You were no less talented than the rest-‘

‘I-I-I know, its just- it didn’t feel that way. At all. So with my new knives and all, I just went too far. I took on one of the attackers alone, in one of the small classrooms. There was a nurse in there, bound and h-helpless. I had to help her, and I wanted to be the one to do it. For once. B-bu-but the knives, th-they were new…’

Diego’s stutter grew more intense, and you gripped his hand tightly, willing his eyes to meet yours. His breaths were shallow, and his other hand gripped the arm of the armchair so hard, seams came apart. His eyes finally floated to yours and his mouth hung open, struggling to find the next words. 

‘I wasn’t used to th-them yet. So when I lost my knives, after missing and throwing them into the walls, the floorboards, I only had my training. A thirteen year old versus some 20 something year old assassin. I didn’t kn-know what I was thinking. I just remember him grabbing my throat, wrenching one of my own knives out of the floorboards and…

His hand shook against your own. 

‘Using it on me. Taste of my own medicine, I suppose.’ A sad smile had flashed at his own dark joke, before he shook it away.  
‘I don’t know how long it lasted, I-I blocked a lot out. I drifted in and out so I- yeah. I wish Ben hadn’t been the one to find me. It basically forced him to use the power he hated so much. But maybe I wouldn’t be telling this story if he hadn’t. I just remember coming to, at the stairs of the Academy with Dad’s face looking down at me. So..disappointed. Like it had been a test and I had…c-completely flunked.  
Diego’s face flashed with resentment, cheeks flushing.  
‘I could swear he smirked, like he had expected me to fail all along. Always Number Two.’

Emotion overcame you, the same white-hot fury you experienced every time you learnt more about the traumas of the Hargreeves. It never failed to surprise you how twisted Reginald had been to the children he had adopted, hardly earning the title of their ‘father’. You kept a straight face for Diego, though as his words grew shakier his face remained like stone, the result of hiding any weakness during his Academy years. 

‘Mom couldn’t do a whole lot for this one here’ He tentatively touched the thick scar across the side of his head that traversed across his right temple, while rising from the armchair. His shaking hand left yours and gathered around the bottom hem of his black, tattered sweater. He rose it only a few inches before you had to bite your bottom lip from gasping aloud. A deep purple scar stretched from his belly button to an inch from his waistband of his leather pants. Jagged and wide, the barely-faded wound made your eyes water, as you struggled to imagine a grown adult inflicting this kind of torture on a young boy.  
’But this is the one I was c-conscious for.’

He struggled to meet your eyes again, his pupils drilling into the depth of the purple scar that so clearly haunted him, all these years on. Your fingers wrapped over his, still on the hem of the sweater and pulled it back down, hiding the wound from view. You rose to your feet, taking a gentle finger to the scar on his head, tracing the line, slowly but carefully. He seemed to melt into your touch, finally bringing his eyes to meet yours, a vulnerability in them you’d never seen before. The once frightened, 13 year old seemed to hide just behind the darkness of his eyes, seeking approval, recognition…warmth.

‘You’re not Number Two anymore’ you said, a sad smile playing on your lips. ‘You are Diego Hargreeves, okay? You left that house and your father has left this earth. You don’t owe anything to that Academy anymore. You gave - you gave more than enough.’ 

Diego opened his mouth but the words wouldn’t form. You softly pressed a kiss to his temple, where the scar started. This was definitely not professional, a small voice in the back of your head warned. But you didn’t care. His hands, considerably more stable now, snaked up to meet yours, where they were cradling his jaw. Neither of you knew what this meant, where this was going. But sitting in this moment, close as you were, was more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> So I haven’t flexed any sort of creative writing muscles in a while so excuse if this is… rusty. I really enjoyed writing this, however I did bang it out in one day so I look forward to writing longer pieces in the future about Diego/OFC or other Hargreeves’. I appreciate any and all feedback so let me know what you think, how this made you feel and if there's any other Academy members/scenarios you'd like me to tackle. :)


End file.
